Lafayette KT-135

While listening to WBBM 780 Chicago on the Lafayette KT-135 which currently sits on my work bench, it brings back memories of my youth and my first receiver — a Lafayette KT-135. Since that time I have spent over 39 years in radio and electronics, operating as a shipboard radio electronics officer and as a 2-way service technician.

Looking back, it’s hard to believe all the years that have passed since I last had my hands on one of these receivers. The Lafayette sold in the 1960s and into the early 1970s. My excitement for this receiver today is every bit as much as it was during 1969 when I was 13 years old — the same year Neil Armstrong first stepped foot on the moon.

The KT-135 is a four-band regenerative receiver — like grandpa’s crystal set on steroids!

When I teach newcomers enthusiastic about radio and electronics, I always make it a prerequisite that they know something about Edwin Howard Armstrong — born 1890 in New York City, died 1954. In my opinion, he was one of the greatest inventors and radio engineers of the 20th century.

The basic design of the regenerative receiver used in the KT-135 was discovered by Armstrong. By feeding a radio signal back into the same tube repeatedly, he could create gain — strengthening a weak signal. Turn up the regeneration control too far and the receiver breaks into oscillation, producing the famous squeal in headphones.

Armstrong later invented superheterodyne conversion (1918) and static-free FM reception. FM is used today in television, cellular phones, and countless consumer devices. Armstrong received his FM patent in 1933 but was financially destroyed by RCA’s David Sarnoff, who resisted the new technology. Armstrong died in 1954.

Empire of the Air

Watch Ken Burns’ PBS documentary Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio.

PBS.org · Get the DVD

Life was just a little simpler back in 1969 — and yet that may not have been a bad thing either!

The KT-135 was a dream come true for a teenager reaching beyond the walls of a childhood bedroom to distant places — the exotic Orient, the BBC and Big Ben, Radio Moscow and Midnight in Moscow, Radio Havana Cuba, and Radio Peking saying one night:

“People of the world unite! Defeat the US aggressors and their running dogs!”

NHK — Nippon Hoso Kyokai — brought broadcasts from Tokyo. Little did I realize that some twenty-five years later I would sit behind a microphone in the NHK studios in Shibuya where those broadcasts originated. For me, this lifelong fascination with radio started with this little box and three glowing tubes that warmed not only my room but my heart for life!

The KT-135 sold for $29.95 in 1969 with an optional leatherette-covered wooden cabinet for $2.85. The catalog promised: “Building this kit is an absolute pleasure — it’s so well designed you can’t go wrong!”

With only $22.95 and a 50-foot piece of wire for an antenna, you had four bands of fascinating programming and literally had the world at your fingertips. The receiver kit taught geography, world events, history, stamp collecting, basic electronics, radio technology, spectrum usage, and time signals.

After many hours of listening I managed to QSL 50 countries with this little gem. The Lafayette KT-135 had a profound effect on my life — the driving force for a lifelong passion in radio communications.

And yet some 40 years later I’m still learning, still listening, and wishing I could once again be 13 years old, building that first radio kit — a Lafayette KT-135.

Carol L. Maher W4CLM